Europe is far from united on U.S. anti-terror campaign

Charles M. MadiganTribune staff reporter

With Al Qaeda and Taliban forces on the run and U.S. troops and Afghan locals pushing the search for Osama bin Laden, a shopper on the street in a freezing, pre-Christmas Paris offered a backhanded compliment to President Bush over the weekend.

"There were a lot of questions about him at first, but after the attack, he responded quickly and, I think, quite well," said Michele LeBreton, a retiree fighting the cold wind. "I think it has been good so far. If he was picked to be president of the United States, he can't be such an idiot."

Some of the French, it seems, are surprised at the effectiveness of the U.S.-led attack on terrorism and the competency of Bush, who was widely criticized here as being ignorant of world affairs during the presidential campaign.

However supportive, though, French street reactions do not represent the overall European view of the war on terrorism.

Despite confusion over the role of British peacekeepers in Afghanistan, support for the anti-terror campaign remains strongest in Britain and the Netherlands, two nations that have been in the vanguard of European backing since the campaign began.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been running interference for Bush since the outset of the campaign, repeating a role he played for former President Bill Clinton during the war in Kosovo. Blair has been negotiating with his European counterparts and offering additional British military support for the effort.

On Monday, the British government said it was preparing to send 1,500 peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan.

And the Dutch have committed a substantial part of their relatively small defense force to the campaign, an effort backed by 3 in 4 Dutch citizens.

But these contributions are not typical.

Despite accounts of "European support" for the war on terrorism, there is no uniform response. If London and The Hague represent the strongest areas of backing, Finland and Greece, among other nations, have displayed little or no interest in sending troops to help.

About half back campaign

European Union polls show about 48 percent support in the 15 EU nations for the war on terrorism, but stronger support for humanitarian aid and democracy-building projects aimed at Afghanistan. There is little support for expanding the war beyond Afghanistan, a reality U.S. policymakers will have to contend with if they push into new territory.

French public opinion is fractured among various political groups but generally reflects support for diplomacy over military action. The government even bristled early on at the use of the word "war" to describe the anti-terrorism campaign.

Finding support, then, for Bush and the anti-terror effort on the streets of Paris, even in informal interviews, is surprising given long-standing French suspicion of U.S. motives about everything from defense spending to McDonald's french fries, which compete with real French fried potatoes.

A little over a month ago, opinion polls showed that about half of French adults did not believe the campaign in Afghanistan would work, with only 17 percent saying it was succeeding. The numbers reflected a decline in support from October's tallies, when two-thirds of the French supported the war.

That skepticism was not apparent on the streets of Paris, although most of the French shoppers interviewed were quick to qualify their praise for anything about the United States.

"For the moment, I think very well of Bush," said businessman Bernard LeBruin. "What happened at the World Trade Center was a terrible thing, but I think it has been good for Bush as a man. But the United States wants to run the world, and that is a problem here in Europe."

If the defeat of most of the Taliban and Al Qaeda forces and the installation this weekend of a new interim government in Afghanistan signal a new phase in the war on terrorism, European public opinion also seems to be shifting as a new set of issues moves in.

"The terrorists have committed the error of confusing freedom with weakness in attacking America," French commentator Patrick Sabatier said in an editorial in the newspaper Liberation. "And America must now resist the temptation of confusing revenge with justice."

Death penalty concerns

The French were particularly upset by the U.S. federal indictment of one of their nationals, Zacarias Moussaoui, on a series of conspiracy charges that carry the death penalty, which is so widely opposed in the European Union that individual nations will not extradite suspects to the United States until they are assured they will not be executed.

Justice Minister Marylise Lebranchu said France would not accept a death penalty for one of its citizens, while a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government would "take steps" to ensure Moussaoui is not executed if he is found guilty by a U.S. court.

The French and the Spanish also have expressed opposition to the use of military tribunals to try non-American suspects in the United States, and the opposition to the death penalty threatens to continue blocking extradition of suspects to the U.S. to face trial.

"The people who hurt all of those people, they should pay for it," said Jean Righi, commercial director for a professional banking organization.

"But we are against the death penalty. Maybe the man who has been indicted should come here and spend his life in a French prison. But I don't think that he should be killed, and I don't think France is doing enough to stop that."

But Dutch support for the U.S. effort is so strong that recent polls indicate Dutch citizens would be among the few to ardently back an extension of the campaign beyond Afghanistan.

"The prime minister said that we wanted to be in solidarity not only in words but in deeds," said Dutch Defense Minister Frank de Grave. "We told the Americans we wanted to participate in Operation Enduring Freedom. We told them they knew what we had and asked them what they wanted us to do."

The Dutch contribution included two frigates, several surveillance aircraft and a submarine.

"The Dutch, if they believe the cause is right, tend to be very involved and very supportive," de Grave said.

In London, the mood seems to reflect Blair's commitment, but with an insistence that England and Europe are not the same places at all.

London real estate executive David Ereira sniffs at French support for the anti-terror campaign. He said he was in Paris on Sept. 11 and was so upset about American flags disappearing from public places that he headed home.

"The relationship between the United States and England is very strong and the support for the war on terrorism is very strong here. That's not necessarily the case elsewhere."